Ok, I know I haven’t been on here forever but we are going to move past that because its time to paint! Yes, again. This time I’m taking it outside to my front porch. Now, lately I’ve been bitching up a storm about my house….its not in the neighborhood I want, too many things to fix, blah blah blah. I’ve decided to put my big girl panties on, suck it up and make some improvements.

First up: the front porch! The front of my house has bothered me for as long as I can remember. Does that mean I’ve done anything about it? No. No it does not. But that changes today. It not only needs a new coat of paint, but a new color. The color on the steps and porch now is kind of a hunter green and although that color is ok, I’m so sick of it. It is also the color of every exterior door we have as well as the color of the back deck.

The two colors I’ve been seriously debating for the porch and steps are a dark brick red or a charcoal gray. If I did the charcoal gray, I would paint the door red. It would be nicer if the door faced the street instead of being off to the side, but oh well. I was all set with the red, but then realized that there is a lot of brick around the steps and the brick red with the reddish brick is throwing me off. So I guess dark gray it is! The siding is tan so pretty much anything goes. I’m planning on adding some flowers and signs to make up for the lack of color.

I know what you are going to say….before and after pics! Yes, you know I will post them. I almost included a before pic with this post but I’m kind of too lazy right now to go snap a pic.

Come on guys….misery loves company! I’m eliminating added sugar for the next 30 days and I’m actually on my way to the store to stock up on some healthier stuff to eat. If anyone wants to join me feel free to share your own experiences or I would welcome any good recipes. I will be posting different dinners, snacks, desserts, etc on here that don’t contain any added sugars. Sugar from fruit, milk, veggies are ok but anything that has the word sugar or any form of sugar in the ingredients is a no no. Oh and no artificial sweeteners (equal, Splenda, etc) or honey. Fun stuff guys…fun stuff.

I am horribly addicted to sugar and I’m hoping to break that in the next month and learn some healthier ways to satisfy my sweet tooth.

So it has been a really ridiculous amount of time since I’ve written anything on here and I don’t even have an excuse! I can’t say its because I don’t have any time because I found time to make my own tree skirt. Yes, I said make my own tree skirt. Never in a million years would I have thought those words would come out of my mouth, but here we are. I’ve also been crazy at the coffee shop getting ready for Christmas and making up lots of baskets and goodies to sell. Of course I will be providing pictures of all of this madness soon.

I need to finish wrapping christmas presents, bake and decorate cookies for teachers gifts, clean house from top to bottom, make up 20 more baskets for work, make a cake for my daughter’s 16th birthday(Christmas Eve), have a birthday party and I’m sure other stuff. I’m just now realizing I may need more than 5 or 6 days to get this all done. But hey, that’s what coffee is for right?

I will be back, hopefully very soon, with some pictures and maybe a tutorial on the tree skirt.

I get bored….and not the “I don’t’ have anything to do” bored, but a restless and stuck in a rut bored. It usually happens around Sept – Oct when the summer is over and fall hits. Don’t get me wrong – fall is my favorite season, but it usually means I’m ready for a change. Sometimes I paint a room, or buy new clothes but more often than not I change my hair color. This is often met with a great big sigh from my husband. Not because he doesn’t like the new hair, but because he knows that I’m never really happy with what I end up with and then there are hours of recoloring, desperately washing with dish soap and maybe a few tears….mostly mine. This time I was determined to avoid this.

I decided to just go for it this time and go completely red. I thought about reddish with highlights but since I’m doing it myself I wanted to keep it simple. Well, as simple as dying blonde hair red can be. I went to Sally Beauty with some pictures and asked one of the girls that worked there for help. She looked with me and helped me pick out a color and developer, gave me some advice and then I went on my way. I came home, followed the directions and after a little while the color looked almost exactly the way I wanted it. When the time was up, I rinsed it out and dried it. I was VERY disappointed! It was the lightest strawberry blonde, but not in a good way. It had a pinkish tinge with lots of blonde still in it. I could have just lived with it until it came out or dyed blonde, but I was determined to have red.

I was thinking of going back to Sally’s but honestly I haven’t had great luck there the last couple times so I took my chances at the store. There weren’t very many choices for the red I was trying to achieve but I saw one that really caught my eye – Feria Deep Copper. Its hard to describe the exact color but its very drastic! I put the color on and within a minute or two I knew it was going to be red!! When it was time, I washed it out and dried it and I believe my exact words were “holy shit!” I was joking last night about looking like Ronald McDonald….ok its not THAT bright, but still.

It is taking me some time to get used to not being blonde. While the color isn’t where I want it to be right now, it definitely is a change! I washed it this morning and it faded a bit. I’m going to try to find a good shampoo for red hair and see how the color settles in the next week or two. I have a feeling I’m going to have to put another color on (closer to the color I had in mind) in the next couple of weeks.

Ok enough chatter, here are the pictures:

The first is the before, the second is right after I dyed it and the third is this morning after I washed it. It also looks different depending on the lighting. I’m trying to find more of a gingery copper than a red if that makes any sense.

I can’t believe how long its been since I’ve written on here….I have no excuse other than being crazy busy and exhausted. But really, aren’t we all?

I don’t have anything real exciting to share, except the coffee shop is doing ok. I wish it was taking off a little faster but I’m learning to be more patient.

I just had my daughter’s 3rd birthday party last week and for about a month she was asking for a Peppa Pig cake. If you haven’t been fortunate enough to be exposed to Peppa Pig, it is a kids show on about well, pigs. Its actually pretty cute and I was excited to make the cake for her. I looked on Pinterest of course and found some really cute ideas. This was one of the inspirations for our cake.

I’m not a professional cake decorator so believe me when I tell you that if I can do this, so can you. I’ve decorated many cakes but most of what I’ve learned has been from looking it up online, help from a talented friend and dumb luck.

I don’t usually work with fondant but I wanted to try it out this time and I figured the pigs were a pretty simple form to work with. The cake would have looked much “neater” and cleaner if I had used fondant to cover the whole thing, but I’m not a huge fan of the taste and I figured a 3 year old wouldn’t judge me.

I baked 2 10″ cakes in springform pans and then made some cupcakes. Actually the cupcakes were made from a gluten free mix and were delicious! I substituted milk for water, butter for oil and added some chocolate chips and they were moist and rich.

Once the cake was cool, I tinted the icing and frosted the top half blue and the bottom half green for the grass.

For the figures, I used white fondant and colored it with gel food coloring. It would have been a lot easier buying colored fondant but I couldn’t find the exact colors I needed and it would have been a lot more expensive. To get the shape of the pigs, I found a coloring page online, printed it out, cut out the different parts, put them on the fondant, cut around and then drew in the details. If I had to do the cake again, I would give myself much more time to cut out the figures and get them just right and also, I would find a tool specifically for cutting fondant because using a knife just didn’t cut it. Hehe

I took a couple of in process pictures of the pigs, but not too many(I forgot). You can get the basic idea though. After the pigs were on and arranged, I shaped some tails and then made a rain hat for Peppa. The mud and clouds were made using a fondant shape cutter thing I found at the craft store.

So if your child asks for a Peppa Pig cake, don’t panic! Get some fondant, bake a cake and wow them!

Ahhhh Sunday morning! Its the only day I have a few rare quiet moments where i can sit and write without interruption. For a few minutes at least.

Update on a few things going on:

We took our first family camping trip and I loved it! Granted, we camped in a cabin not a tent but the cabin had no bathroom so that’s as close to “roughing it” as I get. I loved sitting around the fire with the kids and getting up in the morning without the help of my alarm clock to sit on the porch swing and drink coffee. It pretty much rained off and on for the two days we were there but we had a good time anyway. I’m looking forward to our next camping trip together. It was just the mini vacation I needed to spend some much needed quality time with the family and step away from the coffee shop for a second.

Speaking of coffee shop, it is doing pretty well. Not the masses of people I would like every day but its growing slow and steady…..and really that’s all you can ask for. I’m seeing a lot of regular customers along with some new faces each day. My signs are up on my window, my flyers are printed, coffee cards ready to hand out and I’m working on the other odds and ends. I’ve also ordered a few new syrups and sauces and I’m excited about creating some new drinks.

I’ve been asked if I’m going to carry pumpkin lattes soon…..at first I thought it was way too early, but then I realized that I’m not really one for following rules. I drink iced coffee in the winter, wear sweaters in the summer and start thinking about Christmas when June hits. So in answer to my customers, yes I will be doing pumpkin lattes maybe as early as this week. Or as soon as I can get my hands on some pumpkin syrup. If I’m feeling adventurous , I may even try to make some of my own. We will see.

Other than that, not much else going on. I can’t believe school starts in a couple weeks….I haven’t done any back to school shopping yet. I just don’t feel ready for summer to be over and I don’t feel ready to have a sophomore in high school, a 4th grader and one that will be in preschool very soon. Well, once she decides that using the potty is a good thing.

Ok i guess thats about as much time as the kids are giving me today. I will be creating a new blog for the coffee shop soon. I will use that blog to post new drink creations and anything coffee shop related. I will still keep this blog so you guys can still follow my random ramblings ;)